Most animals’ skin and eyes will be burned, and those that stay too long will perish, but would a person be turned to “stone” like Brandt’s animals if they jumped in? The salty lake has absorbed sodium carbonate and other minerals in natrocarbonatite from the surrounding hills throughout time, resulting in a strong alkaline water. The surreal environment follows in the footsteps of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the only volcano on the planet to spew out one of Earth’s strangest lavas: Natrocarbonatite. Part of the reason it’s so popular with the resilient flamingos is that predators can’t live in its waters for long, making it a no-hunt zone. Lake Natron is home to a variety of fauna, the most notable of which is the lesser flamingos who casually wade in its waters, which have a pH of nearly 12 – close to the strength of household bleach. WHY IS LAKE NATRON SUCH A DANGEROUS PLACE? It isn’t, in fact. In contrast, the circumstances in Lake Natron may likely preserve your remains if your lifeless corpse were to plunge into it, but it’s not a place you’d want to paddle. People have disintegrated in Yellowstone National Park’s hot springs, and stories from the park serve as terrible reminders of what may happen when you fall into the wrong water bodies. Would a human falling into a Tanzanian soda lake behave similarly? No, not right away, but it wouldn’t be a terribly pleasant dip. Photograph by Nick Brandt.After wildlife photographer, Nick Brandt shot images of crusty corpses found in the region in 2013, haunting photos of animals “turned to stone” by the caustic waters of Lake Natron went viral. However, like bathers on a shark-infested beach, even these seasonal visitors sometimes fall victim to the deadly water.Įven seasonal visitors, such as this lesser flamingo Phoenicopterus minor, still fall victim to the caustic water. The flamingos take advantage of the disappearing islands, constructing their mud-tower nests and breeding, all the while feeding on invertebrates in the more saline areas of the lake.
When islands form on the caustic lake, they attract scores of both lesser and greater flamingos. Photographer Nick Brandt captured several spectacular shots of several calcified creatures who fell victim to the illusion of a crystalline, placid lake, only to emerge from the water and become preserved in stone. The water is so deadly to those not used to it that anything that merely touches it is calcified. If there was ever a little slice of Hell on Earth, Lake Natron would be a contender.Ī calcified African fish eagle Haliaeetus vocifer perchesĪbove deadly Lake Natron.
The water temperature can reach well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and supports only those species which are evolved enough to handle such a deadly environment. Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania, is an alkaline lake whose water has the pH of household ammonia.
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